Meet our 2011 Artists In Residence

2011 Artist-In-Residence Dates and Program Schedule

Every year a small handful of talented artists is invited to Rocky Mountain National Park, each for a two week Artist-In-Residence Program from June through September. The peace, serenity, and beauty of this special place, inspires their artistic creativity resulting in works of art drawn from nature. Selected by a jury panel of professional artists, these artists represent a variety of artistic disciplines from musicians, writers, sculptors, painters, photographers, poets, and performing artists. During their stays, these artists share their artistic visions in public presentations. After their residencies, these artists will donate a fully finished art work to the park.

 

Join our artists as they share their creative visions in public presentations. Discover why artists are important to the National Park Service and why Rocky Mountain National Park hosts Artists-In-Residence each summer. Public programs will be held on Wednesday evenings at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center auditorium from June 8 through September 14.

 

Join our artists as they share their creative visions in public presentations. Discover why artists are important to the National Park Service and why Rocky Mountain National Park hosts Artists-In-Residence each summer. Public programs will be held on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m. at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center auditorium from June 17 through September 2.

 
Photo artist Andrew Bedo

Photographer Drew Bedo, of Rosenberg, Texas developed a strong connection to Rocky after a summer's work at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. Although legally blind, he creates fine-art images with traditional films in vintage and antique view cameras. For him, photography is more than a creative act-it is both a therapeutic affirmation, and another way of seeing. He focuses on small things and small scenes where he can touch objects and experience their textures, shapes and spatial relationships to evaluate their potential for a composition. From June 5-18, he plans to capture the park's essence with intimate photographic expressions of light and small things in a minimalist style.

 
Photo artist Scott Eldrige

Scott Eldridge of Vienna, Virginia will spend his residency at Rocky expanding his photographic documentation of prominent U.S. National Park's using the 1830's based photographic technology of the pin-hole camera. Mr. Eldridge also plans to use his residency as an opportunity toward professional growth in experimenting with large-format cameras. For his public talks he hopes to bring greater awareness about how valuable our national parks are and how fundamentally core they are to the United States. Mr. Eldridge will be at Rocky from June 19 through July 2.

 
Photo artist Mark McDermott

Plein-Air painter Mark McDermott hails to Rocky all the way from Anchorage, Alaska. While his paintings typically focus on rugged and remote landscapes, he is also a master at capturing and interpreting the work of natural processes on landforms and patterns in nature. He has been fortunate to merge his background and work in geology and geophysics with his passion for being immersed in stunning landscapes. Mr. McDermott has received countless awards throughout the State of Alaska and has been a finalist in the "2004 Arts for the Parks, Top 100 Finalists". His residency at Rocky will be from July 3-16.

 
Photo artist Brian Slawson

Painter Brian Slawson of Topeka, Kansas, is a self-taught artist who works in oils. He is attracted to subjects that look as if they have a story to tell, a history. In is his quest to convey mood in his artwork, he has become a favorite among collectors. Mr. Slawson has received awards from several of the Arts for Parks regional and national shows, and from the Oil Painters of America. While in residency from July 24 to August 6, he hopes to capture the hand of man on the landscape-roads, cabins and even the Alpine Visitor Center in his paintings, since he regards these man-made objects as part of the national park landscape and experience.

 
Photo artist Walt Hester

Photographer Walt Hester comes from Rocky's gateway community of Estes Park, Colorado. For his residency, Mr. Hester hopes to bring awareness into the day-to-day operations and work that goes into fulfilling the Organic Act or National Park Service mission. To accomplish this he will accompany park staff on the job from August 7-20 to photo-document the work they do, and the challenges they face to protect and preserve the national park. Mr. Hester also hopes to capture the beauty of the landscape together with park staff, so that his images can be both informative and beautiful.

 
Photo artist Emily Harrington

Science Illustrator Emily Harrington of Missoula, Montana, uses nature journaling as process of discovery and as the creative basis from which she creates her final artistic illustrations. Her residency project will be to create a nature journal that will show the scenic beauty and stories of RMNP from her explorations of the park's natural history. Recently Ms. Harrington was commissioned to do a science illustration exhibit for the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History. Her residency in Rocky will be from August 21 through September 3.

 
Roger Wolfe

Video Photographer Roger Wolfe comes from Rocky's front yard, Ft. Collins, Colorado. While working on assignment for Channel 9 News, Mr. Wolfe has received an Emmy award for his coverage of the Pope's visit to Estes Park, the Edward R. Murrow Award for a series on Schizophrenia, and the 2005 Award for Colorado Broadcaster of the Year. For his residency from September 4-17, Mr. Wolfe will work on producing a video of Rocky by blending prose, poetry, music, video and still images along with interviews of writers, philosophers, artists and park visitors, speaking about the importance of mountains and wild places to humans. He hopes to have his video aired on one of the Denver television stations. Now retired, Mr. Wolfe is eager to produce more creative and longer format videos exploring the importance of places like Rocky to the human experience.

 

2011 Artist-In-Residence Dates and Public Programs
Public programs will be held on Wednesday evenings at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center auditorium from June 8 through September 14

Residency Dates Artist Public Programs & Times
June 5–18 Andrew Bedo-Photographer June 8 & 16 at 7 p.m.
June 19–July 2 Scott Eldridge-Photographer June 22 & 29 at 7:30 p.m.
July 3-16 Mark McDermott-Painter July 6 & 13 at 7:30 p.m.
July 24–Aug 6 Brian Slawson-Painter July 27 & Aug 3 at 7:30 p.m.
August 7–20 Walt Hester-Painter Aug 10 & 17 at 7:30 p.m.
August 21–Sept 3 Emily Harrington-Illustrator Aug 24 & 31 at 7:30 p.m.
September 4-17 Roger Wolfe-Video Photographer September 7 & 14 at 7 p.m.

Last updated: February 24, 2015

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